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Old Spice (owned by Procter & Gamble) is one of the most well-known grooming and deodorant companies in the country. In 2010, the company launched one of the most successful viral marketing campaigns in American history. The “Old Spice Guy” character-driven video series was part of the deodorant’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. The viral social media campaign used Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to promote the Old Spice family of products. The video below is one example of the quirky and extremely likeable character Old Spice created to be the face of not only the company but its social media presence.

The deodorant company used a number of tactics to create a successful and fully integrated social media campaign. Jeff Bullas, a social media marketer, contributed the following 11 tactics to Old Spice’s social media success:

Keep Your Videos Short and Snappy

Turn Your Advertising into “Content” that is Easy to Share

Make you Marketing Content Searchable

Be Everywhere

Respond in Real Time

Use Other People’s and other Media’s Networks (for free)

Use Social Media to Activate Mass Media

Keep the Content Pumping

Drive Engagement through Personalization

If it Works Keep Repeating a Proven Formula

Add a Negative Twist

By using the above techniques, the Old Spice Company was able to increase its Twitter followers by 2700%. Facebook fan interaction was up 800%. Oldspice.com website traffic was up 300%. The old spice YouTube channel became the all time most viewed channel. I believe the most important key to the company’s social media success was its dedication to keeping the campaign interactive instead of static. They also engaged their target market by creating a persona for the company that also matched itss online persona. This created a seemingly perfectly integrated social media business campaign.